What happened to the American family? | Notre Dame Stories | University of Notre Dame
Source: https://stories.nd.edu/podcast/what-happened-to-the-traditional-american-family
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:35
What happened to the American family? | Notre Dame Stories | University of Notre Dame
What happened to the American family?
The American family has changed dramatically over the past four decades, raising urgent questions about marriage, economic stability, and child well-being.
In this podcast episode of
Notre Dame Stories
,
Melissa Kearney, the Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics
and director of the
Strengthening Families Research Initiative
, explores the decline in marriage, the rise of single-parent households, and the falling fertility rates in the United States. Drawing on decades of research, she connects these trends to economic inequality, child well-being, and public policy—making the case that strengthening families is essential to improving outcomes across society.
Listen and subscribe
to
Notre Dame Stories
, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame, wherever you get your podcasts.
Read the transcript
The transcript has been formatted and lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Melissa Kearney, the
Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics
and director of the
Strengthening Families Research Initiative
:
But what’s happening to families? What’s happened to marriage? What’s happened to fertility? Those are difficult conversations that a lot of academic institutions today sort of consider out of bounds.
And Notre Dame, in its commitment to rigorous research and uncovering the truth, is willing—even motivated—to have those conversations.
Introduction
:
Welcome to
Notre Dame Stories
, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame, where we push the boundaries of discovery, embracing the unknown for a deeper understanding of our world.
Jenna Liberto, host:
Families are the foundation of society, shaping who we are, our economic circumstances, and the way we experience the world. Yet, the American family isn’t what it was 40 years ago. Almost a third of children in the US are growing up in single-parent homes.
To talk more about the reasons behind this trend and the ripple effects it's causing, we sat down with Melissa Kearney, the director of the newly formed Strengthening Families Research Initiative.
Melissa, I'm looking forward to our conversation. Thank you for giving us time.
Melissa Kearney:
Yeah, I'm excited. Thanks for this.
Jenna Liberto:
Well, let's dive right into it and talk about the current state of the American family because as we talk about that family unit, it's different than it was four decades ago.
Melissa Kearney:
Yes. The American family has changed a lot in the past four decades, since 1980, in particular. What's happened that I've been particularly focused on is there's been a large decline in marriage, a large rise in the share of children born outside of a married couple. And that has resulted in the fact that now almost 40 percent of US kids are being raised outside a married-parent home. So that's a dramatic change in the landscape of how we're raising kids in this country. It has happened very unevenly through the population. The most educated, highest income, most advantaged groups in society are still getting married in high rates; they're still raising their children primarily in married-parent homes. And it's really outside the college-educated class that we've had this huge decline. Another major shift that's really happened in the past 15 years is that fertility in this country has really plummeted. And so now, the share of women who are having children, the number of children people are having, is at a historic low. It's never been this low in our country's recorded history. So these are major changes.
Jenna Liberto:
And let's dig in a little bit more to some of the challenges facing families in the US, and particularly the group you're talking about that's facing the most challenges. Give me a sense for what those are.
Melissa Kearney:
Yeah, this is why this is such an important topic, really. Because the decline in the two-parent home and marriage has really happened among less economically advantaged groups, and so this divergence in family structure has amplified economic challenges. So what I mean is, if you look at workers who don't have college degrees, men in particular, their employment has gone down. Their real earnings overall have gone down in an absolute sense and relative to women. And then what you have is, on top of that, households being more likely to only have one adult—that exacerbates economic insecurity. So if a couple was already struggling to make ends meet and now there's only one adult in the house, the economic situation is even more precarious.
Jenna Liberto:
Melissa, you're the director of the Strengthening Families Initiative. Tell us what that is and why is it so important that that's being activated right now.
Melissa Kearney:
Given what has happened to families in this country, it is imperative that we figure out how to help strengthen families to advance child well-being, to advance adult well-being, to close these class gaps in economic opportunities. And I'm really excited about this research initiative.
The Strengthening Families Initiative here on campus is a research-based initiative. It's housed in the economics department, but it is deliberately interdisciplinary. And we also are engaging scholars outside of the Notre Dame community to really build an evidence base about what is happening. What are the drivers of the decline in marriage, the decline in two-parent homes? What government programs and social policies help strengthen families? How can we reform and improve institutions and organizations and programs that work with vulnerable families? It's a really critical research initiative. This evidence base is lacking largely because the topic of families and what's happened to families has just not gotten the attention it deserves, it warrants, it needs. I am thrilled that Notre Dame has launched this—is willing to put energy behind this. And it's also very uniquely Notre Dame. Other research universities are not focused on this topic to the same extent.
Jenna Liberto:
Say more about that. Why is it so uniquely Notre Dame?
Melissa Kearney:
I mean, Notre Dame as a leading research university is committed to rigorous research and to pursuing the truth. And I love that Notre Dame is willing as part of that to take on difficult conversations. The conversation about what's happening to families, what's happened to marriage, what's happened to fertility—those are difficult conversations that a lot of academic institutions today, a lot of policy organizations sort of consider out of bounds, maybe even impolite. Let's not have those conversations.
And Notre Dame, in its commitment to rigorous research and uncovering the truth and as part of its Catholic identity, is willing—even motivated—to have those conversations. Because it is very much aligned with the Catholic identity of the University. Catholic teaching celebrates the family as an important institution. When the economic data shows it's also a really important economic institution, we're not in conflict, and we're willing and able to pursue that important research.
Jenna Liberto:
I want to talk a little bit about where your personal passions come from. What motivates you for this work?
Melissa Kearney:
It's interesting. [. . .] I've sort of been pursuing this same line of research since I was in undergrad, and then I did have a pivotal experience that I think really set me down this research path in particular. I spent a summer interning at a welfare-to-work center in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I was teaching math, word processing, job readiness classes to women who were on welfare in the state of Connecticut and had to take these job training classes to keep their jobs. And I was 19, and these women were my age, but they had two, three, four kids. They were on welfare. And so, that just raises all sorts of questions. Why? How come? How come their opportunities and choices feel so different? Why are we ostensibly the same, but our lives look so different?
And so, I went back and wrote my undergrad thesis. And then somewhere along the way—probably when I became a mom myself—I became really emphatically committed to understanding why we don't do more in this country to advance child well-being in a broad sense.
And as a mom, seeing how much I devoted to my kids resource-wise, knowing very well that other kids don't have access to that—once you see the inequities and the differences in opportunities and outcomes for kids, and you see how terribly underprioritized children are in this country. . . . And so, I think what passionately drives me to do this research on families is a recognition that there's nothing more important we can do to improve child well-being and human flourishing than figure out how to strengthen families.
Jenna Liberto:
I know for myself, I think daily about how hard it is to be a parent. And I have all the resources and all the frameworks for success, and it's hard every day for me. Is that part of it for you too?
Melissa Kearney:
Totally!
Jenna Liberto:
Looking at that inequity and knowing the reality that just, this is hard work.
Melissa Kearney:
This is really hard. This is really hard.
And again, my research interest, my scholarly interest, my policy interests have been in economically vulnerable families. And you realize, gosh, there are people—so many women, economically vulnerable women—who are doing this by themselves. That's got to be near impossible. So many people doing this while they're sort of, you know, living with the threat of poverty—that's got to be nearly impossible. I will say, too, this is why the pushback I got on some of this research really, you know, emboldened me to push back, because we're not doing anyone any favors by pretending that what's happened to families, that the, you know, large . . . The fact that more than half of women without a college degree are having children outside marriage—that is not easy. That's not a situation to be celebrated. It's a situation to ask, "Gosh, why are these women who are in less economically advantaged situations so much more likely to find themselves doing this—as you said—really hard job by themselves, and what can we do to help that situation?"
Jenna Liberto:
You're having that conversation in your book. It's called
The Two-Parent Privilege.
Talk more about what inspired you to write this book.
Melissa Kearney:
I wrote that book because [after] doing research on poverty, inequality, social policy for 25 years, it becomes very, very clear that the inequities in family structure are amplifying other inequities in society and that we can't have an honest conversation in this country about inequality or social mobility or other social challenges without talking about what's happened to families—the class gap in two-parent families—and ways to try and address that. So what I was trying to do with that book was make the topic of families and what's happened to families part of the policy conversation.
Take it out of the culture wars and say, "Hey, while we talk about schools and criminal justice reform and labor market institutions, let's also talk about the need and ways to strengthen families." So that's why I wrote the book.
Jenna Liberto:
And what's been the reaction? Because I know you write in the book that you would go to conferences and try to start these discussions, and . . . crickets. So what's been the reaction?
Melissa Kearney:
So that, again, that . . . it was almost like, I was like, "OK, I am going to write this book as an economist and try and make it so that it's something that people feel like we can talk about."
You know, one of the things I'm pleased I was able to do with this book is say, "Here, let's talk about it in these terms." Not a value proposition, not a moral position, certainly not blaming people who find themselves in these difficult situations. Let's talk about it as a matter of social science and policy. And it was incredible, first of all, how many people got it. Like right away, all of the major econ outlets, major presses wrote about it. It was written about in
The New York Times
, the
Financial Times
,
The Wall Street Journal
.
But, I will say, it also elicited the expected reaction from some people who immediately, just at the title, were like, this is out of bounds. "Save your propaganda, lady." Like, just didn't want to have the conversation.
But I was; overwhelmingly, the response was, "Oh good, this is a conversation we need to have." A couple of things that surprised me: I got, like, hundreds of emails from people who wanted to tell me their story. They heard me talking on a podcast, and they're like, "Let me tell you..." "I'm a single mom." "I'm a single dad." "I'm a grandparent raising my grandkids." "I was raised by a single parent." It was very interesting to me how many people just want their situation to be recognized and want their story told. So that was emboldening. And, you know, the other thing that surprised me was how many teachers or pediatricians I heard from.
Jenna Liberto:
Really?
Melissa Kearney:
It was like, "This is what I've seen in my classroom, in my doctor's office—for the past 20 years, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. So thank you for this work." So that's all very invigorating and validating that this is a conversation we need to be having.
Jenna Liberto:
How do you envision your work and your research affecting public policy?
Melissa Kearney:
There's a lot of interest from policymakers at the federal, state, and local level now about, "OK, what can we do to advance families?" I think the hard part is bringing the evidence up to speed on where we need to be to answer those questions with confidence. But I have no doubt that once we have the evidence base, there is a way to disseminate it and have impact directly on people who are making policies and running programs that affect families.
Jenna Liberto:
Just finally, Melissa: Why is Notre Dame the best place for your work?
Melissa Kearney:
I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this university. It is an incredibly special place. For those of you who have been here a long time, I'm not sure if you've gotten used to it, but still, when I walk on this campus, I am just sort of gobsmacked by the very tangible energy and commitment to doing research and to engaging in teaching in the pursuit of truth and goodness and promoting human flourishing. There's an energy. It's palpable. There's so much support from the University, from the broader community. It's just absolutely amazing, and I can't imagine a better university setting in the world, quite frankly, to pursue this kind of research.
Jenna Liberto:
We're so glad you're here. Thank you for the conversation and the conversation you've started.
Melissa Kearney:
Thank you.
Jenna Liberto:
I appreciate your time.
Notre Dame Stories
is the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. It was created by the Office of Public Affairs and Communications.
Host: Jenna Liberto
Executive Producer: Andy Fuller
Producers: Jenna Liberto, Josh Long
Videographers: Zach Dudka, Josh Long, Tony Fuller, Michael Wiens
Graphic Design: Brittany Searles
Related
Fighting poverty: Research helping our communities
Notre Dame's Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) is using research to fight poverty in a way that makes a real impact.
Fighting for community regeneration
Gary, Indiana, has been a song lyric, a cultural hub, a stigma, a city to rush past, but now it is poised to revitalize, thanks in part to Notre Dame's School of Architecture.
The forest and the trees
Notre Dame research provides complementary angles on childhood adversity.
Light/Dark
What happened to the American family?
The American family has changed dramatically over the past four decades, raising urgent questions about marriage, economic stability, and child well-being.
In this podcast episode of
Notre Dame Stories
,
Melissa Kearney, the Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics
and director of the
Strengthening Families Research Initiative
, explores the decline in marriage, the rise of single-parent households, and the falling fertility rates in the United States. Drawing on decades of research, she connects these trends to economic inequality, child well-being, and public policy—making the case that strengthening families is essential to improving outcomes across society.
Listen and subscribe
to
Notre Dame Stories
, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame, wherever you get your podcasts.
Read the transcript
The transcript has been formatted and lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Melissa Kearney, the
Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics
and director of the
Strengthening Families Research Initiative
:
But what’s happening to families? What’s happened to marriage? What’s happened to fertility? Those are difficult conversations that a lot of academic institutions today sort of consider out of bounds.
And Notre Dame, in its commitment to rigorous research and uncovering the truth, is willing—even motivated—to have those conversations.
Introduction
:
Welcome to
Notre Dame Stories
, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame, where we push the boundaries of discovery, embracing the unknown for a deeper understanding of our world.
Jenna Liberto, host:
Families are the foundation of society, shaping who we are, our economic circumstances, and the way we experience the world. Yet, the American family isn’t what it was 40 years ago. Almost a third of children in the US are growing up in single-parent homes.
To talk more about the reasons behind this trend and the ripple effects it's causing, we sat down with Melissa Kearney, the director of the newly formed Strengthening Families Research Initiative.
Melissa, I'm looking forward to our conversation. Thank you for giving us time.
Melissa Kearney:
Yeah, I'm excited. Thanks for this.
Jenna Liberto:
Well, let's dive right into it and talk about the current state of the American family because as we talk about that family unit, it's different than it was four decades ago.
Melissa Kearney:
Yes. The American family has changed a lot in the past four decades, since 1980, in particular. What's happened that I've been particularly focused on is there's been a large decline in marriage, a large rise in the share of children born outside of a married couple. And that has resulted in the fact that now almost 40 percent of US kids are being raised outside a married-parent home. So that's a dramatic change in the landscape of how we're raising kids in this country. It has happened very unevenly through the population. The most educated, highest income, most advantaged groups in society are still getting married in high rates; they're still raising their children primarily in married-parent homes. And it's really outside the college-educated class that we've had this huge decline. Another major shift that's really happened in the past 15 years is that fertility in this country has really plummeted. And so now, the share of women who are having children, the number of children people are having, is at a historic low. It's never been this low in our country's recorded history. So these are major changes.
Jenna Liberto:
And let's dig in a little bit more to some of the challenges facing families in the US, and particularly the group you're talking about that's facing the most challenges. Give me a sense for what those are.
Melissa Kearney:
Yeah, this is why this is such an important topic, really. Because the decline in the two-parent home and marriage has really happened among less economically advantaged groups, and so this divergence in family structure has amplified economic challenges. So what I mean is, if you look at workers who don't have college degrees, men in particular, their employment has gone down. Their real earnings overall have gone down in an absolute sense and relative to women. And then what you have is, on top of that, households being more likely to only have one adult—that exacerbates economic insecurity. So if a couple was already struggling to make ends meet and now there's only one adult in the house, the economic situation is even more precarious.
Jenna Liberto:
Melissa, you're the director of the Strengthening Families Initiative. Tell us what that is and why is it so important that that's being activated right now.
Melissa Kearney:
Given what has happened to families in this country, it is imperative that we figure out how to help strengthen families to advance child well-being, to advance adult well-being, to close these class gaps in economic opportunities. And I'm really excited about this research initiative.
The Strengthening Families Initiative here on campus is a research-based initiative. It's housed in the economics department, but it is deliberately interdisciplinary. And we also are engaging scholars outside of the Notre Dame community to really build an evidence base about what is happening. What are the drivers of the decline in marriage, the decline in two-parent homes? What government programs and social policies help strengthen families? How can we reform and improve institutions and organizations and programs that work with vulnerable families? It's a really critical research initiative. This evidence base is lacking largely because the topic of families and what's happened to families has just not gotten the attention it deserves, it warrants, it needs. I am thrilled that Notre Dame has launched this—is willing to put energy behind this. And it's also very uniquely Notre Dame. Other research universities are not focused on this topic to the same extent.
Jenna Liberto:
Say more about that. Why is it so uniquely Notre Dame?
Melissa Kearney:
I mean, Notre Dame as a leading research university is committed to rigorous research and to pursuing the truth. And I love that Notre Dame is willing as part of that to take on difficult conversations. The conversation about what's happening to families, what's happened to marriage, what's happened to fertility—those are difficult conversations that a lot of academic institutions today, a lot of policy organizations sort of consider out of bounds, maybe even impolite. Let's not have those conversations.
And Notre Dame, in its commitment to rigorous research and uncovering the truth and as part of its Catholic identity, is willing—even motivated—to have those conversations. Because it is very much aligned with the Catholic identity of the University. Catholic teaching celebrates the family as an important institution. When the economic data shows it's also a really important economic institution, we're not in conflict, and we're willing and able to pursue that important research.
Jenna Liberto:
I want to talk a little bit about where your personal passions come from. What motivates you for this work?
Melissa Kearney:
It's interesting. [. . .] I've sort of been pursuing this same line of research since I was in undergrad, and then I did have a pivotal experience that I think really set me down this research path in particular. I spent a summer interning at a welfare-to-work center in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I was teaching math, word processing, job readiness classes to women who were on welfare in the state of Connecticut and had to take these job training classes to keep their jobs. And I was 19, and these women were my age, but they had two, three, four kids. They were on welfare. And so, that just raises all sorts of questions. Why? How come? How come their opportunities and choices feel so different? Why are we ostensibly the same, but our lives look so different?
And so, I went back and wrote my undergrad thesis. And then somewhere along the way—probably when I became a mom myself—I became really emphatically committed to understanding why we don't do more in this country to advance child well-being in a broad sense.
And as a mom, seeing how much I devoted to my kids resource-wise, knowing very well that other kids don't have access to that—once you see the inequities and the differences in opportunities and outcomes for kids, and you see how terribly underprioritized children are in this country. . . . And so, I think what passionately drives me to do this research on families is a recognition that there's nothing more important we can do to improve child well-being and human flourishing than figure out how to strengthen families.
Jenna Liberto:
I know for myself, I think daily about how hard it is to be a parent. And I have all the resources and all the frameworks for success, and it's hard every day for me. Is that part of it for you too?
Melissa Kearney:
Totally!
Jenna Liberto:
Looking at that inequity and knowing the reality that just, this is hard work.
Melissa Kearney:
This is really hard. This is really hard.
And again, my research interest, my scholarly interest, my policy interests have been in economically vulnerable families. And you realize, gosh, there are people—so many women, economically vulnerable women—who are doing this by themselves. That's got to be near impossible. So many people doing this while they're sort of, you know, living with the threat of poverty—that's got to be nearly impossible. I will say, too, this is why the pushback I got on some of this research really, you know, emboldened me to push back, because we're not doing anyone any favors by pretending that what's happened to families, that the, you know, large . . . The fact that more than half of women without a college degree are having children outside marriage—that is not easy. That's not a situation to be celebrated. It's a situation to ask, "Gosh, why are these women who are in less economically advantaged situations so much more likely to find themselves doing this—as you said—really hard job by themselves, and what can we do to help that situation?"
Jenna Liberto:
You're having that conversation in your book. It's called
The Two-Parent Privilege.
Talk more about what inspired you to write this book.
Melissa Kearney:
I wrote that book because [after] doing research on poverty, inequality, social policy for 25 years, it becomes very, very clear that the inequities in family structure are amplifying other inequities in society and that we can't have an honest conversation in this country about inequality or social mobility or other social challenges without talking about what's happened to families—the class gap in two-parent families—and ways to try and address that. So what I was trying to do with that book was make the topic of families and what's happened to families part of the policy conversation.
Take it out of the culture wars and say, "Hey, while we talk about schools and criminal justice reform and labor market institutions, let's also talk about the need and ways to strengthen families." So that's why I wrote the book.
Jenna Liberto:
And what's been the reaction? Because I know you write in the book that you would go to conferences and try to start these discussions, and . . . crickets. So what's been the reaction?
Melissa Kearney:
So that, again, that . . . it was almost like, I was like, "OK, I am going to write this book as an economist and try and make it so that it's something that people feel like we can talk about."
You know, one of the things I'm pleased I was able to do with this book is say, "Here, let's talk about it in these terms." Not a value proposition, not a moral position, certainly not blaming people who find themselves in these difficult situations. Let's talk about it as a matter of social science and policy. And it was incredible, first of all, how many people got it. Like right away, all of the major econ outlets, major presses wrote about it. It was written about in
The New York Times
, the
Financial Times
,
The Wall Street Journal
.
But, I will say, it also elicited the expected reaction from some people who immediately, just at the title, were like, this is out of bounds. "Save your propaganda, lady." Like, just didn't want to have the conversation.
But I was; overwhelmingly, the response was, "Oh good, this is a conversation we need to have." A couple of things that surprised me: I got, like, hundreds of emails from people who wanted to tell me their story. They heard me talking on a podcast, and they're like, "Let me tell you..." "I'm a single mom." "I'm a single dad." "I'm a grandparent raising my grandkids." "I was raised by a single parent." It was very interesting to me how many people just want their situation to be recognized and want their story told. So that was emboldening. And, you know, the other thing that surprised me was how many teachers or pediatricians I heard from.
Jenna Liberto:
Really?
Melissa Kearney:
It was like, "This is what I've seen in my classroom, in my doctor's office—for the past 20 years, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. So thank you for this work." So that's all very invigorating and validating that this is a conversation we need to be having.
Jenna Liberto:
How do you envision your work and your research affecting public policy?
Melissa Kearney:
There's a lot of interest from policymakers at the federal, state, and local level now about, "OK, what can we do to advance families?" I think the hard part is bringing the evidence up to speed on where we need to be to answer those questions with confidence. But I have no doubt that once we have the evidence base, there is a way to disseminate it and have impact directly on people who are making policies and running programs that affect families.
Jenna Liberto:
Just finally, Melissa: Why is Notre Dame the best place for your work?
Melissa Kearney:
I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this university. It is an incredibly special place. For those of you who have been here a long time, I'm not sure if you've gotten used to it, but still, when I walk on this campus, I am just sort of gobsmacked by the very tangible energy and commitment to doing research and to engaging in teaching in the pursuit of truth and goodness and promoting human flourishing. There's an energy. It's palpable. There's so much support from the University, from the broader community. It's just absolutely amazing, and I can't imagine a better university setting in the world, quite frankly, to pursue this kind of research.
Jenna Liberto:
We're so glad you're here. Thank you for the conversation and the conversation you've started.
Melissa Kearney:
Thank you.
Jenna Liberto:
I appreciate your time.
Notre Dame Stories
is the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. It was created by the Office of Public Affairs and Communications.
Host: Jenna Liberto
Executive Producer: Andy Fuller
Producers: Jenna Liberto, Josh Long
Videographers: Zach Dudka, Josh Long, Tony Fuller, Michael Wiens
Graphic Design: Brittany Searles
Related
Fighting poverty: Research helping our communities
Notre Dame's Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) is using research to fight poverty in a way that makes a real impact.
Fighting for community regeneration
Gary, Indiana, has been a song lyric, a cultural hub, a stigma, a city to rush past, but now it is poised to revitalize, thanks in part to Notre Dame's School of Architecture.
The forest and the trees
Notre Dame research provides complementary angles on childhood adversity.
Light/Dark